11/16/2023 0 Comments Mickey mouse with gas mask drawingRequests were so numerous that the studio had to set up an entire five-person unit devoted to insignia, under the lead of artist Hank Porter, to even come close to meeting demand. You see, Walt wanted to check the progress of a gas mask he’d recently designed. Company artists created images of Disney characters for unit patches, eventually providing insignia to almost 1,300 units in the U.S. The year was 1942, Walt Disney flew to Washington and met with defense and chemical warfare officials with another one of his great ideas. The use of Disney’s characters in war-related work helped to strengthen the perception of the Disney brand as a symbol of the United States and its values.ĭisney was most prolific during the war as a morale booster for the troops. By the end of the war, however, the title “Salesman of the American Way” may well have belonged to Walt Disney himself. In 1943 The New York Times singled out Donald Duck, in particular, as an “ambassador-at-large, a salesman of the American Way” for his representation of the United States both at home and abroad. Disney’s entire stable of characters was employed in the name of patriotism, and by 1943 newspapers were reporting that up to 90 percent of the Disney studio’s work was for government agencies. government at cost), and military insignia for over 1,000 different units in the U.S. Throughout the early 1940s, Disney churned out military training films, educational shorts (provided to the U.S. Artists, animators, and Walt Disney himself pitched in, enlisting Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other beloved Disney characters in the war effort. But space was not all that Disney would provide the troops. Army troops requisitioned half of Walt Disney’s Burbank, California, studio for their use. On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II.
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